This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

After Phil Kessel left the ice abruptly before the end of practice on Wednesday, Leafs coach Randy Carlyle was asked if he could describe the nature of his leading scorer’s presumed ailment.

Carlyle pleaded ignorance to the reason for Kessel’s departure — he doesn’t question such things, he said, in the way he doesn’t grind his men when they need bathroom breaks. Clearly, then, the only folks to ask were the ones wearing the HBO credentials.

On Wednesday the U.S. cable channel’s crews began filming in earnest for the 24/7 TV series. As fans of the show would expect and demand, the embedded cameras followed Toronto’s leading scorer into the dressing room after his early exit from the ice.

Upper body? Lower body? Late for a ping-pong match? If Thursday’s morning skate doesn’t deliver answers, tune into the show’s Canadian premiere on Dec. 15. Leafs GM Dave Nonis expressed his confidence that the folks from HBO will only depict his swooning team with tact and good judgment.

“They’re pretty sensitive as to where they should and shouldn’t be,” Nonis said of the TV crew. “With that said, I don’t want them anywhere near my office.”

Article Continued Below

While some in Leafland fixated on who’ll turn out to be HBO’s centre of attention, Carlyle continued to be stuck for a good answer to the long-lingering question of who’ll play centre.

The Leafs, of course, have been soft up the middle for a long while now. It’s an ongoing weak spot that’s appeared even more feeble this season due to a series of injuries. First-line centre Tyler Bozak, who missed a month with a hamstring injury, missed practice with an upper body injury on Wednesday, when he was expected to undergo more diagnostic tests. Third-line centre Dave Bolland has been out more than a month with a severed ankle tendon.

And fans weren’t exactly taking comfort that inconsistent centre Nazem Kadri was back from a family funeral after missing Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to San Jose, or that Peter Holland, he of 35 career NHL games, was pulling on the white jersey signifying the practice-ice role as Bozak’s stopgap replacement.

A day after being dominated by the Sharks in Toronto’s fifth straight loss, Nonis acknowledged that he’d enviously watched his opponent’s centre depth chart, which includes the likes of Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, the kind of big, skilled performers the Leafs haven’t had since Mats Sundin’s departure.

“They can change the pace of the game. They’re strong enough to hold off almost any defenceman,” Nonis said. “I mean, you dream about those kind of guys, no question.”

Carlyle, indeed, has been harping about the need for the Leafs to carve out more possession time in the offensive zone. And a big centreman is the place such down-low domination begins.

“It’s not hard to find a big centre. It’s hard to find a big centre that can play,” Nonis said.

“And (Thornton) can really play. Those guys are at a premium. He’s been an elite player for a long time. It doesn’t look like he’s slowing down ... (But) it’s hard to find. Nobody wants to give them up.”

The Leafs will face a team on Thursday that has managed to find a handful of centres in short order. Dallas Stars rookie GM Jim Nill was among the suitors for Vincent Lecavalier this past summer, when the veteran centre, who’d been a compliance buyout in Tampa, hit the open market.

And though Nill missed out on Lecavalier, who ended up with the Flyers, the Dallas GM quickly swung a deal with the Bruins to bring Tyler Seguin and Rich Peverley to Texas. Seguin, a No. 2 overall pick, had sunk to third-line winger with the Bruins, where GM Peter Chiarelli spoke of the Brampton native’s need to become a “better pro.”

But anyone who’d seen Seguin play centre as a junior — and Nill, the former Detroit executive, had seen him play in nearby Plymouth plenty — knew he had rare skills and explosive speed.

While Seguin has missed his team’s most recent couple of games dealing with concussion symptoms, he’s Dallas’s second-leading point getter and leads all Stars forwards in average time on ice, logging more than 19 minutes a game. He also won’t turn 22 years old until next month.

It’s not the first time that a change of scenery has benefitted a young player. If his acquisition could have been spun as a risk — the Bruins, after all, gave up a list of players headed by Loui Eriksson — so far it’s proving to be an intelligent one. Stars coach Lindy Ruff has said it’s possible Seguin will return to action in Thursday’s game at the Air Canada Centre.

It’s the kind of bold move Nonis is going to need to make if the Leafs are to partake in the jump from on-the-bubble playoff team to a more serious contender. Heck, given that the Leafs’ playoff probability of making the post-season has plummeted from 95 per cent to 64 per cent in a 14-game stretch that has seen them put together just two regulation victories, life on the playoff bubble might soon be a pipe dream.

For now, the GM is choosing to sit tight.

“Everybody has problems. Right now we’ve got problems we have to deal with. And the only way we’re going to get through it is internally. Looking for outside help or other solutions, it’s not the way to deal with injuries or difficult times,” Nonis said.

“I think in this market, it’s magnified because there’s so many people looking at it. But everyone goes through it ... Too bad. You’ve got to find a way to play.”

Still, going forward, what’s ever more clear is that the Leafs need more help up the middle. Could they find it in free agency this summer? Projected unrestricted types include Thornton and Paul Stastny. Could they find such assistance on the trade market? On Wednesday, shortly after journeyman centre Jerred Smithson was placed on waivers, there was speculation the move might have been made to set the stage for a trade. But Nonis shook his head.

“If there’s a trade I can find that can help us, I’ll do it,” Nonis said. “But there’s nothing close right now.”

If there is something close, Nonis doesn’t figure to be the type to let it unfold under the gaze of HBO’s motion-picture-quality lenses.

“I stay away (from the cameras),” Nonis said. “I sit up as high as I can and lock the door to my office.”

And what if the influential folks from HBO have the power to procure a key? Well, unless they’ve invented an X-ray camera, it might not get them the access to the GM they’re seeking.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com